How Fatima,19, started smoking cannabis

There is widespread concern about the use of illicit psychoactive substances among young people, including teenage girls in Borno State.

These drugs, according to the  authorities, are being imported from neighbouring countries and consumed in large quantities.

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Some of the psychoactive substances are found in medications and plants.

Fatima, 19, (the second name withheld), who lives in Maiduguri  picked up cannabis smoking ‘barely’ a year ago mainly due to peer influence.

She said, “Most of my friends use marijuana and I watched them roll the joint before it is lit.

“Sometime last year I developed an interest in it and collected a ‘wrap’ from a friend and inhaled the smoke: that was how I started.”

She said her friends smoke cannabis to ‘get high’ but “it makes me drowsy and I feel hungry”.

She said that illicit substances were brought to local dealers in Maiduguri who in turn sold to consumers in a number of places either undercover or in the open.

Fatima, who took a ‘softly-softly’ approach to every question directed to her had dark skin and lips and was getting taller.

She had a strong body but is not fat.

She said she could not get cannabis by paying money but obtained and frequently shared ‘joints’ with friends.

When asked whether she was aware that sharing a rolled joint could lead to disease transmission, she paused and avoided the question and said some of the avid cannabis smokers she knew, displayed some symptoms of mental illness.

What Fatima said actually coincided with the assertions of Borno State Governor, Professor, Babagana Umara Zulum on how illicit drugs have become a social menace in the state.

He said the menace has led to rising prostitution and gangsterism at the Internationally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps.

He said of  great concern to authorities,  was the fact that secondary school students were involved in illicit substance abuse leading to dropout, extreme violence, rape, suicide, poor health and poor academic performance.

The governor, who participated in the burning of 19,234.58 kilograms of seized illicit psychoactive substances by the officials of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in Maiduguri, said state official would be empowered to complement the anti-drug efforts.

Ahmad Bilya, was a cannabis smoker in his twenties who said that most illicit substance dealers were familiar with their customers who could come from lower, middle and upper societal classes and the kinds of substances they patronise.

He said married women usually had errand girls or boys who buy the substances for them.

He said, “Indian hemp is sold in different sizes; the smaller ones are wrapped up in sheets of papers and sold for N50 while the bigger parcels go for as much as N8,500.”

He said there were a few patent medicine (chemist) stores, which sold drugs including tramadol and codeine that are illegally taken in excess to alter the brain.

“These people sell the drugs that require prescription freely to their customers,” he said.

He said many girls and married women consume more than one illicit substance.

Bilya, who brought out a small parcel of cannabis from his pocket, said, “this is the only thing I smoke, I do not take excessive medicinal drugs to intoxicate and my friends too.

“But my girlfriend smokes and is addicted to different substances taken by her friends.”

He agreed that many people have developed health complications from drug overdose.

NDLEA Chairman, Mohammed Mustapha Abdallah said drug abuse among Nigerians particularly women was alarming and that the agency would include drug tests as part of the conditions for marriages.

He said huge tonnes of illicit substances were being seized and destroyed after court orders.

According to him, the drug situation in Borno was complicated by proximity and porous borders with Chad, Cameroon, and the Niger Republic.

An opinion leader in Maiduguri said to win the fight against illicit substances, parents and teachers must monitor the movement of children and sensitise them about the dangers in drug addiction.